Tablature is a type of music notation that is specific to stringed instruments, for example, guitar, bass, lute and vihuela, to name a few. Use of tablature dates back to the 1300's. Tablature graphically represents the frets and strings of the instrument, and indicates to a musician what string to fret and where on the fingerboard to fret the string. It is a graphical representation of where the musical notes are to be physically played by the musician on the instrument.
By way of example, in a conventional six string guitar, the strings are numbered one through six, starting with the highest sounding string, i.e., high E. Some of the strings are of varying thicknesses, with the sixth string being the thickest, and therefore the lowest sounding, string. When holding a guitar in a typical playing position, the string positioned closest to the floor is the first string and the string positioned closest to the ceiling is the sixth string. A conventional guitar tablature staff is a graphical depiction of six identical and equally spaced horizontal lines, the uppermost line corresponding to the first string and the lowermost line corresponding to the sixth string.
A conventional chord diagram depicts a grid formed from six vertical lines and six horizontal lines. For use with a guitar, the vertical lines each represent a guitar string and the horizontal lines represent the nut and five frets. A filled circular marking placed on one of the vertical lines and within a space formed between two horizontal lines indicates to the guitar player which string to play and at which fret. The six vertical lines are identical in thickness and spaced equally from one another; the six horizontal lines are also identical in thickness and spaced equally from one another, although sometimes the uppermost horizontal line representing the nut is drawn thicker.
A conventional, prior art guitar tablature staff 100 is shown in FIG. 1. The tablature staff 100 is configured for use with a six string guitar, and includes six horizontal lines of identical weight and spaced evenly apart. The uppermost line 102 represents the first string on guitar, the lowermost line 112 represents the sixth string on the guitar and lines 104-110 represent the second to fifth strings respectively. A numeric marking 114 positioned on the line 104 representing the second string indicates that the musician is to play the second string at the first fret; the value of the numeric marking, i.e., “1”, indicates the fret. In the second bar (where bars are separated by one or more lines), a second numeric marking 116 indicates the musician is to play the fourth string at the third fret. The third bar includes numeric markings indicating a chord to be played on the guitar. In this example, the chord is an E chord. A numeric marking of zero, e.g., markings 118, 120 and 122, means the open string is to be played. In Baroque tablature, alphabetic markings are used in place of numeric markings. For example, the first fret is marked with a “b” rather than the number “1”.
A conventional, prior art chord diagram 150 is shown in FIG. 2. In this example, the chord diagram 150 is configured for use with a six string guitar, and includes six horizontal lines and six vertical lines forming a grid. The six vertical lines 152-162 each represent a guitar string and are of identical weight and evenly spaced. The uppermost horizontal line 164 represents the nut and is thicker than the other five horizontal lines 166-174, which each represent a fret. The leftmost vertical line 162 represents the sixth string, the rightmost vertical line 152 represents the first string, and the lines 154-160 between represent the second through fifth strings in sequential order. Markings on or above the grid indicate to a musician which string to play and at which fret. For example, the markings shown represent the E chord, which is also depicted in the third bar in FIG. 1. The open string of the first, second and sixth strings 152, 154 and 162 are to be played; the first fret of the third string 156 and the second fret of the fourth and fifth strings 158, 160.
Tablature is usually used in conjunction with a music staff, i.e., a treble staff, that is formed from five horizontal lines. Notes are indicated on a music staff and indicate the musical notes to be played and their rhythm (e.g., G, A, etc), as compared to the markings on a tablature staff that indicate the string to be played, i.e., where on the instrument to play the note (e.g., first string, second string, etc.).